Taipei, Taiwan has planted a lot of trees over the last thirty years,

http://www.amcham.com.tw/content/view/3313/

and as wealth has increased there from third-world to newly industrialized levels, tree cover has improved immensely. The predominant look of Taipei and the surrounding suburban cities in Xin Taibei (formerly, Taipei County) is tall buildings, but the trees at street level

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/07/04/2...

are quite pleasant to look at, and have improved residential neighborhoods quite a lot as they have grown over the past few decades.

Many cities in the United States Midwest have had to reforest because of the ravages of Dutch Elm Disease,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_elm_disease

and Minneapolis has had to be especially intentional about reforestation after losing thousands of elm trees in the 1970s.

http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=28

http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=926

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/urban/treespayusback/vol1/ufore%20mp...

It is very satisfying to look across the Twin Cities from an airplane window or from the observation level of a tall skyscraper building and see mostly treetops in what are actually urban neighborhoods.

For people who live a long time on the same lot, or who at least have the chance to see the same lot after moving away, little is more satisfying than watching a tree grow up. I remember planting trees with my late dad in 1962 for the newly built house where I mostly grew up. I moved away in 1971, but now live not far away, and can see trees that I remember as saplings now thick and tall and shading the entire house.